One Thing Can Change Everything
by Linial
Summary: Sequel to "For Her". The Justice League's founders come upon a mysterious spaceship. They end up trapped and must find who is behind this. They quickly realize that they are far away from what they call home. Ultimately BMWW.
1. Chapter 1

**Not mine. Hope you'll enjoy this new story.**

 **ps: Sorry for every typos and any others mistakes, that's my bad.**

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 _The floor shook once more, but this time, Batman was ready, this moment could be what decided the rest of his life and so much more._

 _Batman jumped forcefully through the glass and through the force field preventing the ship's atmosphere to leave into space. His arm extended to threw a last punch to the commander. It hit him, hard. His hand wouldn't be able to hold anything soon._

 _This moment was what could change everything._

 _The ring slipped from the commander's finger. Batman watched it like in slow motion as it fell on the floor. The emerald ring bounced once, twice… The commander threw his sword away and rushed to catch the rolling ring._

 _Batman felt the gravity took hold on him as his fall began, but his mind wasn't focused on that. His eyes were only fixed on the now tiny green point that was jumping over the edge as if he was following him._

 _A silver gloved hand appeared and try to catch the ring before it could fall further. The commander had the ring in his hand, brushing his finger, and then he grabbed it._

 _Hopelessness spread through Batman's mind. What he had just fought for was lost, who he would have done everything for was lost too. He couldn't take it. When he it the floor, he felt pain, but that pain was not physical._

Bruce jerked awake, breathing hard and sweating profusely. It was just a dream, or rather a nightmare. Bruce couldn't help but felt that they were like warnings: it could have gone so wrong, like in his dreams. He had them since that day, every night, they were so realistic, as if he had seen it himself. The pain he felt was beyond what he could withstand, and he knew what that implied.

Bruce decided not to think about that more than he already had the past week. He needed to think about something else, not about what could have be. He needed to do something else, anything, right now.

 _Shower_.

He quickly discarded his sheets and stood up from his bed. He looked at the digital clock on his desk. Only 9 o'clock. He hadn't got much sleep since he hadn't been back from patrol before 5am. He shook his head, knowing he wouldn't get anymore sleep today and until his return from patrol tomorrow morning.

Bruce headed up to his bathroom, noticing the sunrays already penetrating through the closed curtains. He took a quick and hot shower that washed away his last feelings from his previous night of nightmare.

When he came back in his bedroom, shaved and dressed in a mere towel hanging around his waist, his bed was already done and a small note was gently put over his pillow. Bruce smiled at the sight, Alfred must have at least super-hearing powers to know when he woke up. He picked up the letter and read it.

It seemed that Alfred was informed that Superman had requested a meeting later in the morning, and that the butler had already made breakfast. Bruce didn't want to make the old man waiting anymore longer and headed to the kitchen, that and the thought of that cup of coffee he needed.

Bruce reached the kitchen without wasting time. Now that he was thinking about it, he was quite hungry, his body needing even more food to be sustained because of his recovery. If not for his fall last week and his quite severe wounds, the last night patrol would have been a piece of cake. However, it felt good to be back into business, back to patrolling the streets of Gotham.

"Good morning, sir."

"Good morning to you too, Alfred." Bruce greeted him, slipping into the nearby chair as the butler slid a plate in front of him. "Thanks."

Batman rapidly finished his food, which, by the way, was as always deliciously cooked by Alfred, and walked down to the Batcave to prepare before being beamed up to the Watchtower. He needed only to make few things: check into the Gotham's news, read the reports from Oracle and slip into his uniform. He did everything within half an hour.

The now fully dressed Dark Knight of Gotham stepped onto the transporter pad and type a command on a virtual keyboard on his gauntlet. In a bright flash of light, Batman was aboard the Watchtower.

Only nodding to the people that greeted him, he made his way to one of his private labs on the satellite. He still had some minutes to review his last experiment about one specific poison he wanted to know everything about.

After reading all the data he had got from his experiment, he wasn't pleased he hadn't discovered anything worth of interest. Not giving up, he started another one, resetting the various machines with other settings only he was understanding the meaning and the use.

After that, Batman confidently walked toward the meeting room, though quite pissed about his lack of progress. Like any other Saturday, the Watchtower was full of people. However, though he hadn't noticed it when he was beamed up there, he noted everyone was quieter than usual, and that was something to say with the young Leaguers using the cafeteria as their meeting place.

Anyway, Batman couldn't complain about that, he was the first one annoyed about their nasty tendency to make even more noise than a bunch of teenagers. That being said, they _were_ a bunch of teenagers. The Batman finally reached the room where were already waiting the six other founders speaking among each others.

Eventually, Superman noticed him and instructed everyone to take their seat and he began the session.

"Alright, now that we're all here, I think I should explain why I have requested your presence." At the nods of the others, the Man of Steel resumed his explanation. "Well, earlier this morning, J'onn and I were assigned to monitor duty and we detected something heading straight to the Earth."

"Spaceship?" Batman coldly asked in his usual dark and emotionless voice.

"We don't know," the Martian answered, "we hadn't noticed any form of energy coming from it so it's likely it's an asteroid although we cannot be sure it's not a spacecraft."

"Yes, we can't assume what it is, however what is surprising is that it just popped up on our screens. If it were a mere asteroid, we should have noticed it days ago." Superman added.

"We just have to go and see for ourselves." Shayera suggested, to what Flash agreed.

"I think it's the best way too." Wonder Woman said, looking at John to express his opinion on the matter.

"Well, if we can't be sure otherwise, then it can't be a bad idea." The Green Lantern agreed with the three others.

"How long before it reaches Earth?" Batman's voice cut through the room and make everyone's head turned toward him.

"It has a very low velocity, it should reach Earth within four days, maybe five." J'onn answered.

Batman only nodded, already thinking of what needed to be done.

"Alright, we will go see for ourselves. Tomorrow, 10am."

Everyone agreed to the Justice League unofficial leader's and part member's words, whom they knew always say what was the best thing to do. For what was about decisions like this, strategies or logical ways to do something, everyone knew Batman was the best, and so, they knew when to listen to him. And it wasn't if he would have let them do otherwise either.

"Well, that's settled then. There's also the annual Gala that we have yet to schedule, so… is there any date someone would prefer…" Without answers, he concluded no one had one. "Well, I thought we could make the first Wednesday next month. Is it fine for everyone?"

Batman and J'onn stayed quiet and Diana hummed her agreement while Hawkgirl and Lantern shrugged, saying implicitly 'whatever'.

"Fine for me." The team's speedster agreed enthusiastically.

"Alright. Then, meeting adjourned. See you later." Superman bid goodbye to everyone and quickly stalked out of the room, much to the surprise of everyone.

"He was quite in hurry." Diana pointed out, raising a quizzical eyebrow and looked at her fellow heroes for an answer.

"Not my fault!" Wally defensively exclaimed, holding his hands up.

Diana tried to hide her smile and rolled her eyes, then looked at John and Shayera.

"Not a clue." GL shrugged.

"Neither do I." The Thanagarian said.

"Well, I gotta go, I'm taking Linda to lunch." Wally cheerfully explained, "See ya, buddies." And in a red blur, the speedster disappeared from the conference room, quickly followed by Green Lantern, Hawkgirl and Batman.

However, Diana blocked the way out of the Dark Knight, crossing her arms on her chest. Making sure everyone had left the corridor, she pushed him back inside the room and closed the metal door.

"I hadn't any news from you since you leave the Watchtower four days ago." Diana said to him with an accusing voice.

"I haven't been on the Watchtower since then." He lied to her. Even though it wasn't what he wanted to do, he hated lying to her, he wanted even less to speak about what _she_ wanted.

A flash of hurt passed on her face quickly replaced by one of anger.

"Don't lie to me, Bruce." She threateningly raised her voice, "I know you have been working in that lab of yours these past three days."

Bruce narrowed his eyes. He was feeling trapped, well, he _was_ trapped. _Of course, she would know._ He thought quickly how to avoid that conversation but didn't have the time to speak before she asked him another question.

"How are you?" Her face had become concerned, quite different from angered.

"I'm fine." He growled.

She looked at him worriedly. "I'm not so sure, you don't look very well."

Batman sighed, he hated the fact he wasn't able to push her away like he used to, but then again, he didn't know if he could live without her anymore, even if they weren't in a relationship. Yes, her mere presence was something he was needing, and the fact that she cared about him made him even more… defenseless against her.

"I heal fast." He finally decided to say.

Diana frowned, "But you are still not a meta."

"No, I'm not."

She sighed too, knowing he wasn't back to his fully strength and health. "Does it hurt much?"

"I can manage."

"Good." She looked around the meeting room, looking for something to add, but nothing came to her mind. "Well, be careful then." Diana eventually said, only caring for his well-being.

Batman didn't respond but the absence of his clenching jaw showed for him that he hadn't take her words the wrong way. Wonder Woman nodded in goodbye and left the room, leaving him alone.

Bruce stayed looking forward for some minutes to the point she had just left. She was right, he had been aboard the Watchtower several times these past days, but he was avoiding her, hoping that he wouldn't be confronted with feelings he didn't want to. Truthfully, Batman wasn't sure anymore of what he wanted.

As he did every time this thought popped into his mind, he pushed it aside. He had better things to do than thinking about relationships and love interests. The Batman was a loner, not a man looking for a relationship.

Finally, the last Leaguer in the room left too. The Batman headed straight for the transporter where he beamed himself down to the Batcave.

oOo

"Hawkgirl, Superman and I are going."

"What?!" Wally exclaimed, "Weren't we all going?" The crimson speedster asked incredulously.

"No."

"But-"

"Don't try, Flash, you won't win. Mister dark and brooding is too stubborn to change is mind on anything." Diana said, sending a teasing smile to the Dark Knight, who threw her back his infamous Bat-glare.

"You are no fun, Bats." The Flash pouted resignedly.

"We'll call for backup if we need extra help." Superman assured Wally.

"Okay, okay, just go, I'm staying on the Watchtower anyway."

"Let us go." The voice of the Batman ended every talks and Shayera and Clark entered the Javelin, quickly following the Dark Knight. Diana waved her hand to her fellow Leaguers and John, J'onn, Flash and she left the Javelin' bay.

Aboard the Javelin, Batman expertly set the aircraft's controls and headed the Javelin toward their target's last position.

"We should have a visual within seconds." Batman informed the two others.

"I don't see anything, not even with my supervision." The Man of Steel frowned.

"It should be right in front of us."

The three Leaguers felt that something wasn't right.

"The instruments detect it right ahead, it must be cloaked."

"I don't like that." Hawkgirl said, reaching instinctively to her mace with her hand.

"Neither do I." Superman tensed as the Javelin slowed down to approach where _it_ should be.

Suddenly, as if they just entered into the cloak field, a massive dark spaceship appeared out of thin air.

"Definitely not an asteroid." The Dark Knight rasped, "Watchtower, send the other founders to our position."

" _Right away, Batman."_ Mr Terrific answered.

"Engage protocol 8, everyone in standby."

" _Alright, what's happening?"_

"We don't know, yet. Batman out."

Superman and Shayera turned to the Caped Crusader expecting his input on what they should do now.

As if reading their mind, he spoke, not even looking at them. "We wait until the others are here."

"Alright." Shayera sighed and backed away from the cockpit to the back seats.

However Clark stayed. Something was bothering him about this spacecraft. Other than the fact it was quite gigantic and pretty scary, firstly, he could see it was damaged, very damaged, he was even wondering if there was still some atmosphere inside, and secondly, it reminded him of something. This spaceship was definitely reminding him of something.

"It seems strangely… familiar."

"Because it is." Batman stated.

Superman snapped his head to face his friend, raising his eyebrows into a a quizzical look. "And when have we met… that?"

Bruce didn't answer Clark's question but turned on his heels to look at Shayera as she came back in the cockpit.

"The others will be here within minutes."

"Good." Batman said as his gaze shifted to the control panels once again.

"We should go in. The ship his greatly damaged, its passengers are maybe in need of help."

"Fine. Wonder Woman," He called, putting his comm-link on, "follow our Javelin."

" _Understood."_

Batman flew the Javelin around the massive spacecraft, judging its size and gauging the threats it could possibly cause to their smaller Javelins if it were to become a hostile foe. From what information he could gather, it once was well armed, but the damages were obviously concentrated on the offensive areas of the ship.

Batman couldn't help but felt impressed by what it had gone through, and therefore he was slightly sorry for the crew, if anyone were still alive, but just slightly since he couldn't not notice the discreet patterns carved on the exterior of the ship. He was remembering all too well when such ships went to Earth, not two weeks ago.

But these patterns weren't entirely similar. It was definitely the same style but not the exact same patterns. Batman couldn't see them very well from the Javelin, but these ones seemed thinner than what they encountered back to Earth. Did that make a huge difference? Maybe…

Batman flew the Javelin until he reached what seemed to a dock. The Javelin entered smoothly the wide hole and was surrounded by darkness. The only light coming through the entrance was the lights from the other Javelin waiting the go to follow. Space is a dark place, even more without the soothing sunlight.

Since the dock were completely exposed to the space vacuum, Superman flew out the Javelin and with Batman's instructions, he succeeded to close the hangar's doors and pressurized the room. They wondered how there could still be energy in the system but it seemed that the ship as a lot of resources left over.

They could say that because Batman was able to hack through the hangar terminal. It give them a lot of information though not as many as the Dark Knight had wanted. All the corridors, all the decks were pressurized and with an atmosphere normal human can breath. There was also the fact that there wasn't any living signature.

But that was enough to agree to explore the ship in team of three or two. John, Shayera and Wally formed the first team. They agreed to search the first deck. Then J'onn and Superman went for the second, leaving the third one to Diana and Batman.

"Let's go." She said assuredly.

Batman led the way to the third deck walking through the maze that was this alien spaceship as he had always known it. Of course, he had just watched the blueprint of the entire structure. He knew exactly where to go and where he needed to go. He was walking toward the command room. There he would have an entire control of the ship and could discover what remained to be discovered.

His steps were assured and quiet. It was a wonder for the mere human he was. The air was filled with tension, the atmosphere letting obvious the wick feeling that gripped the guts of anyone who would walk into these halls. Something wasn't right.

"Bruce…" Diana whispered, calling for his attention. She pointed to a door to their left.

Batman had sensed it too. He stopped, his body stiffen in anticipation of a hypothetical fight incoming. However, it never came. When they finally decided to look at the room where they thought something was hiding, they find nothing. There was nothing more than what could be expected of a storage room.

"I don't like it…" He mumbled.

Wonder Woman nodded in agreement. She had the feeling they were being watched, and her feelings rarely failed her. Moreover, Batman was uneasy too.

"We should continue."

They both left the storage unit and resumed their walk toward the computer room. It wasn't as far they could have thought at first, though the ship was very, very large, the command room was fairly near the main dock.

"Bruce, I need to know something."

Diana's questions startled him. He hadn't thought she would start a talk while they were still wary of their surroundings. If he was surprised, he didn't show it, nor did he answer.

"I need to know if you would throw your life for me."

Batman stopped dead. He had wondered it too several times during the past week and he had always come to the same conclusion: yes. But right now, _she_ was asking him _that_ question. Even if he did acknowledge what he knew he would do if something came to happen to her, he wasn't sure if he was ready to reveal it to her.

However, he didn't have to choose because he heard his own voice answering against his will. "I would do anything for you." _Damn it_ , he shouldn't have said it.

"That's what I thought." She replied thoughtfully.

They resumed their walk. However, Diana spoke again some minutes after. "I don't want you to, Bruce, you're too precious for me."

Bruce didn't stop this time but he was as affected by her words as he had been when she told him so in the medical room on the Watchtower. "I wouldn't want to do otherwise."

She remained silent for some moments. "I would prefer you alive than dead."

To this, Batman didn't answer. He had already made promises to her and he was always true to his words. Moreover, this wasn't the place nor the time to have this kind of discussion. So, they kept walking down the way Batman was leading them.

They finally reached the control room, without sensing anyone's other presence. They found the doors locked. Diana tried to force it open but it failed as well as Batman tentative to hack the system. It should be easier than the control panel in the space hangar but no, Batman couldn't find the breach into the perfect lines of code.

"Maybe we should ask Superman to melt the door." Diana offered. This was the simplest solution. Superman's heat vision will undoubtedly open the doors within seconds.

"Superman, we need you at our position." Bruce spoke through his earpiece.

He eventually heard the voice of Clark coming from the comm-link after some moments. _"Alright, we are coming back to the Javelins, come to meet us there."_

"We are coming." He confirmed. Then turning to Diana he beckoned the way back.

They quickly made their way back to the Javelins' hangar. Clark and J'onn were already waiting there. However they seemed to be greatly bothered.

"Hmm, guys, I think we got a problem."

The way Superman spoke was very unlikely his. We could say he was not only bothered by something but also a little embarrassed.

"The Javelins have been stolen."

Bruce and Diana stopped briskly on their track to join the two other powered heroes.

"Stolen?" Batman hissed, angered filling his voice. How could someone steal a Javelin? And two? He had created them, they had the best security system you could find on Earth. How could someone steal them?

"What Superman is saying is that the Javelins are gone."

Indeed, Wonder Woman and Batman could now see through the open door and could only attest of the disappearing of their two Javelins. Bruce had to breath long and hard to calm himself.

"How…"

"We don't know, when we returned back here, they were already gone." The Man of Steel replied, coming back to his usual self. He had expected a worse reaction from his friend: the Javelins' were his pride, after the Watchtower, the Batwing, the Batcave, the Batmobile… it was definitely something he was proud of nonetheless.

Batman strode past them and into the hangar. He wanted to find out what really happened, though what happened was obvious.

After pacing the hangar once more time without noticing any clue that were obviously nonexistent, he came back to his logical mind and realized his friends were looking at him amused even though the seriousness of the situation. Yes, he wasn't acting like his usual self.

Taking a long breath, Batman finally took control of the situation once more. They were trapped on that ship, a possible threat to the whole world flying back to Earth with _their_ Javelins, and they had no way to call back the Watchtower because their communications were blocked and were quite surprisingly only working between two people inside the ship.

"Where are the others?" Batman eventually asked, suddenly worrying that they had encountered the mysterious thieves.

"We know as much as you do, Batman." J'onn replied then his eyes flashed orange, "But I can't sense their mind."

Diana pushed her comm-link. "Shayera, John, Wally, where are you?" Her question was only answered by static. "Is everything alright?... Shayera?"

The more they waited a response, the more they were all becoming anxious about their friends. Eventually, they agreed to go up and look for their three teammates. They weren't any remaining doubt, something had happened to them.

Batman strode toward the superior deck, leading the way without even looking back to the others to know if they were following. His teammates were probably in danger, that was something he couldn't accept. This was quite ironic if you think about carefully, they were superheroes, they put their lives in jeopardy every time they go out to do the good.

But _this_ was different, they needed him, them. Even if he couldn't help worrying about Diana's safety, he wasn't bothered by the other taking the same risks than her or himself. However, he was always present if anyone needed help, really needed help.

Still stalking through the spacious hall of the alien spaceship, Batman pulled out a micro-computer from his utility belt and started typing furiously on it. He wanted to know if he could locate the missing members of their expedition with the position of their communicators. Maybe even if they didn't answer, their communicators were still working.

Diana saw his jaw clenching at his displeasure. She didn't know why he was so in hurry to find the others but she thought it could be about one of his ex-protégés. She was just understanding how much Jason's death actually changed Bruce's behavior. But she was confident Wally's, John's and Shayera's ability to take care of themselves.

They walked for almost half an hour before Batman put the group to a stop, proof of the wideness of that spaceship. Superman could see Bruce's focused eyes searching from behind his lenses something on the ground. Finally his gaze stopped and the Man of Steel followed it three little devices lying on the ground in the corner of the corridor.

"This is not good." Said J'onn, moving to come pick up the three earpieces.

The four of them stayed there, none of them daring to speak what they all were thinking about. Truthfully, they hoped that they would find them quickly but this was very unlikely. There was to many places to look for and there was also the possibility that they were taken prisoners aboard the stolen Javelins. Then again, they hoped that nothing… dramatic happened to them.

Suddenly, they felt the floor shake slightly. Then, they heard the humming of powerful engine starting. It lasted thirty seconds during which they stayed put, all their senses on alert, then it stopped as suddenly as it began.

There was a deafening silence. Diana tentatively took a look around her, expecting yet invisible enemies to appear suddenly. But they never came. Instead, a high whistling made them all jump in surprised as it rang out through the their entire being. The floor shake once again, but far more violently, almost sending them on the ground.

It stopped again, for good this time. Batman quickly checked his computer but found nothing explaining what happened. However, he was quite sure, it couldn't be of any good for them. Behind him, the three others were looking at each other as if they were expecting one another to have some explanation they knew they hadn't.

They didn't wait there to find out what happened, instead the Dark Knight led them through the corridors to what he thought was the nearer control room. Then again, he wasn't sure if he was heading them to where he wanted, something was making him wary of this place, and his instincts rarely failed him.

With this last happening, it could only confirm someone was aboard with them, someone or something was flying this spaceship. But, it wasn't making any sense, why would someone stole the Javelin if there was still another person piloting the spacecraft. Out of his logical mind, two solutions made its ways from his subconscious: first, they, if they they were, wanted to trap them inside, without any mean to escape or contact any support.

Second, the Javelin might have been stolen because it was a mean to escape. Therefore, someone had run away from someone, or something again, that could be dangerous. Of course, they were also the possibility of stealing the Javelin to check before the main ship went ahead.

But that couldn't explain why the spaceship was so badly damaged and not why they hadn't seen any living signs yet. If it wasn't for the Javelins' disappearing and what happened seconds ago, they would have thought it was empty and it would be in the solar system by pure hazard.

But he didn't think so anymore.

Batman's train of thoughts was stopped by the always calm voice of the Martian Manhunter. "I think you should see that."

Bruce turned to see Diana, Clark and J'onn staring out to the space infinity through a wide glass panel. The path Batman lead them was indeed passing to corridors directly in contact with the ship's hull. Truthfully, it was surprising that that part of the spacecraft was unscathed and that they had been able to take these halls to reach so far.

However, he didn't think of any of that. His mind was already trying to process the new information he just received.

When they entered into this spaceship, they were near Saturn. Right now, they couldn't see it, neither could they saw any light coming from the sun. It was an endless night filled with countless stars.

As beautiful as the sight was, it was unforgivingly informing them of the fact they weren't in known territory anymore.

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 **I hope I'll be able to update quickly but I need to do the same with my other story. However I think I will be posting chapter two in two weeks, maybe. Anyway, I need your feedback to know what should be improved, and I know there are things I really need to improve.**

 **Well, that's long enough, next chapter in 2 weeks, hopefully :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi! As promised, there it is. It's a bit shorter than I'd have wanted it but... don't know what to write. (Am I speaking of this AN or of the story ?)**

 **Sorry for the typos and others mistakes, my bad.**

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Superman being with them, the control room's door didn't last long. Even if J'onn would have phased through it to try to open it from inside, it would have worked since the door was welded to the wall, but in a way it was invisible from outside. Moreover, they hadn't the luxury that time was. Their teammates were missing, probably in danger. They needed to find them quickly. Therefore, Superman was the fastest way to reach what they were there for.

Batman immediately went to the main computer, not wasting any time, and started what he thought he needed to do. Meanwhile, the three others stared at him in bewilderment as his fingers were flying over the keyboard. How he could be so confident, precise and efficient when dealing with alien technology was beyond understanding. But there he was, and they could only acknowledge his abilities.

However, as much as they were impressed by their teammate, they couldn't stay still and not doing anything by themselves. So, they began to wander through the control room. Surprisingly, it was more spacious that one could think. There were numerous computers, placed on one side of the room, but the other side was filled with shut down screens and many other monitors. They surely were worth looking more closely to them.

Diana walked to one peculiar screen. It wasn't like the others by the fact it wasn't damaged, well, not as bad as the others. It wasn't powered, but she was sure it could be turned on if she could find the switch. She looked around and found it. It wasn't difficult to turn it on, it was quite the same way that of a human switch. The screen she was focusing on lit up and she could find out what was being displayed.

It was what she was expecting. She thought she would find some information about the system or the ship state… but not the display of a security camera. And what she saw was even more troubling. It showed a room, a large room. It was alike the ones they had seen, same metallic gray, same places where were put the lights, etc… But there was a big difference: the walls were pierced with half-yard diameter holes. There were a lot of them, filled with something akin to some sort of dusty glass coffin.

"I have something."

Superman and J'onn quickly came to her from their different locations. They both stared curiously at the screen. They couldn't make a lot of sense out of it neither, it didn't look like anything else in this spaceship.

"Bruce, you should see that."

"What?" He snapped from the computer he was working on.

"Just come and see that." Clark responded back . "Don't make me drag you here."

Batman growled his displeasure but stood up and walked to them. He looked at the screen with attention, his face not showing any surprise even if he couldn't be expecting that, could he?

"I think I know what it is." J'onn said.

"Cryogenic chambers." Batman stated.

The Martian Manhunter turned his head to Batman and nodded slowly. "Indeed."

"Is there… anyone inside?" Diana asked worriedly.

"Maybe. If there are, they are in deep slumber or dead, I can't feel their minds."

"We have to check." She firmly said, "I'm going with J'onn." The Martian Manhunter nodded his agreement and they both stalked to the melted door.

"Wait." Diana and J'onn stopped before they'd reached the exit. "You are _not_ going." Wonder Woman turned over to face Batman, what does he have to say against the fact there might be people trapped in these _boxes_ since no one knows? "We are going, all together. We can take the risk to be separated. Half of the team is already missing."

"Then let's go, what are we waiting for?"

"That I finish to hack through the system." Batman answered as he was already back in the chair in front of the alien computer.

She sighed. Diana didn't like waiting, but she couldn't deny the fact it was true. The risks were too high. Truthfully, she wasn't afraid of whoever was inside with them, and she hoped nothing had happened to Shayera, John and Wally, if not, she knew whoever was behind this _will_ be afraid of her, but if he, or she or they, had succeeded to trap three of the most powerful metas on Earth.

That wasn't nothing. They needed to be careful, very careful. In fact, now that she was thinking of it, everything was against us. This person should be knowing a lot more than they do about the spaceship. They could even be its creator.

"You know, I can't see through the wall here." Diana turned her head to her left where Clark was now standing. "It's not like this with lead, it's not that I can't see through it, but it's more as if it's… I don't know how to describe it. With lead, I can't see through it, here, I see nothing behind it."

"I'm not sure I understand." She quizzically looked at him, "though, I'm the best person to explain you why it's that way."

"I'm not expecting that, from anyone. It's just that I know Bruce won't be pleased if any of us were to disturb him right now. But he is always listening to everything, so that way…"

Diana chuckled, Bruce was as Clark described him, and he was one to know. "You're surely right, Kal."

"He likes playing the deaf, but he's-"

"Let's go." Batman's voice startled both of them. The Dark Knight was already by the door, waiting for them. How did he even manage to surprise the two of them? Good question. Even Clark, who had known Batman for more than ten years wasn't able not to be surprised. But, after all, it's Batman we are speaking about.

"Tell me, Princess, did you even know where you were heading to?" His voice was sarcastic. He was making fun of her.

"No, but-"

"So you were going to walk aimlessly through the corridors waiting to find it by chance, knowing full well there is someone wanting to capture or worse, kill us. Good plan." Of course, it was ironic, but Bruce said it with utmost calmness and seriousness. Had they not known him better, they could have thought it to be his real opinion.

"I'm not playing that game with you, Bruce. Go ahead and lead the way." Don't be angered by him. _Why does he want me to be so?,_ she thought, _maybe because of yesterday, I don't think he liked me worrying for him_. She smirked at the thought, and at the face Batman made just after she said to him what to do.

His eyebrows furrowed, his lips tightened, but he said nothing. Superman went to J'onn's side, away from Batman and Wonder Woman, expecting the two of them to start a fight or something worse. Thankfully, Batman just turned away and passed through the door frame, quickly followed by Diana, and then, by the others, Superman welding the door close after them.

Batman led them through the labyrinth that was the different but very similar successive paths leading no one know where to. The path they took was peculiar, not in the way it was strange or darker than the infinity of possibilities they could have taken, but it seemed Bruce was choosing the one way they wouldn't have noticed or even thought to go through. It was a strange feeling that to follow through the way none of our instincts were saying to go on.

It was only after ten minutes, lasting to them more like forty in the oppressive silence they fall into, that they noticed, or at least, Superman noticed Batman checking quickly something on his gauntlet. Maybe J'onn could feel Batman's confusion but they couldn't see it anyway. The following minutes, Batman checked more frequently whatever was on his forearm.

Eventually, Clark asked him what was going on. "Is everything alright, Bruce?"

"Yes." Batman sharply answered, "Just some details."

"Are we lost?" Even without turning around and seeing his face, Batman couldn't miss the slight smirked that was forming on Clark's features at the thought of the infamous Batman being lost. It was funny, but not too much nonetheless since they were with him, lost if he were, alone in a big, big ship, nowhere near Earth, with no possible back-up and so on.

"No, we are almost there."

True to his words, Batman turned to the right a last time and they found themselves in a dead-end. In the wall in front of them was a door greatly damaged, as if someone fired at it with energy weapons. It was also more armored than the others they had encountered while walking to here. It'd held it, the door was still sealed.

Then, he walked to the control panel beside the door and typed keys only he knew. This time, and unlike the two precedent doors he tried to open, it did work. The double door slid open revealing the room they'd seen earlier. And it was deathly silent. Unlike the other places, it was completely silent. They hadn't noticed it but they'd all become accustomed to the ambient noise, not that it was loud, but not silent.

"There we are." Superman whispered in awe.

The room was wider than what they were expecting. It probably could contain hundreds of people, hundreds of potential enemies, or so was already deducting Batman. But he was believing there was little chance there were anyone, alive at least.

Diana went directly to the nearer pod imbedded perfectly in the wall. Dust was accumulated on the front glass. She noticed a strange element: that glass panel seemed less dusty than the every other. Except that, she couldn't quite place what was making her feel wary. Something wasn't right but… no, she didn't know what.

She cleaned it with her hand to see inside but stayed still when she saw what was inside, shocked. From the person it once was, there was nothing remaining but the skeleton, bones, dry bones. "Dead, this one is dead, for years, maybe decades from what remains of him."

"The same here." Superman responded.

"This one is dead too." J'onn informed them from further on the room.

"They are all dead. The process never put them into cryogenic stasis, it killed them." Batman said from his position at one of the control monitors. He quickly finished checking the log files that he could find there. "There had been a problem, it didn't work as it should have, killing them all."

"But… who are they? Didn't they know something wasn't working?" Asked Diana, clearly distraught by the death of so many.

"I don't know."

"That's awful." Superman added, "They died believing they would wake up someday. At least they died in peace." He sighed, the thought was sickening, putting their faith into the technology that killed them.

"Maybe not, the blasts on the door might indicate someone was trying to enter. I think they it was there last solution." Batman said, sliding away from the computer and walking to Diana. He bent down to look through the glass. "They died painlessly though."

"Geez, Bruce! Can't you be at least a bit less pessimistic?" Clark snapped.

"Over there!" J'onn called them.

They fast walked to him, a few yards away from their current position. J'onn was looking into one of the pods, his face motionless as he used to be. But there was something more: there were no remains of a body inside. No, that badly was alive, though it didn't look were healthy.

It was definitely a she. She had long raven hair, a pale face, surely due to the her stasis but also due to the sickness that clearly was eating her from inside. Her features were sharp, letting anyone who was looking at her see the bones under her delicate skin. Her beauty was undeniable but they could only agree her face should be unrecognizable even to the ones she grew up with.

Clark let a small gasp of surprise. "Didn't you just say everyone was dead?"

"She's not one of them."

Three pairs of eyes turned almost instantly to him, their owners surprised. "How… can you-"

"I said they all died long ago, she isn't one of them, someone brought her here."

"Why would anyone do so?"

"I don't know but there are things I know." Batman started, "All of this is older than we first thought. However, it seemed to be similarities between this ship and the one that came to conquer Earth not too long ago."

"You're right, now that you say that, I don't know how I miss it."

"When I was poisoned?" Diana asked.

"Yes." Batman answered shortly, "but this can't be a coincidence, two spaceships, one place, two weeks of interval. They wanted something from this spacecraft."

"Indeed, this is too unlikely to be a coincidence to be ignored."

The four of them stayed there staring at the laying figure in her glass coffin. She had a look, a face they could almost recognize, but it was only a far picture of her past beauty. Yet, she still was almost familiar to them.

"We need to find the bridge." Batman eventually said. "There we will have all the control and the information we need to come back to Earth."

"Alright, we follow you." Superman agreed.

"I don't know where it is." He responded.

"How… can't-"

"It wasn't on the blueprints I downloaded. That's what I was checking earlier, the blueprints I have aren't complete."

"That's bad news."

"Yes." Silence, "Yet, it's quite ingenious."

Superman and Wonder Woman chuckled in disbelief. Everything was completely against them.

"But, we will find it eventually if we continue to search, as well as John, Shayera and Wally."

"You said it yourself, Bruce, by chance? It'll take us days."

"Or weeks, that's why we need supplies. I have some in my belt, for two persons to last one four days, but without water…"

"That will be a problem."

"Indeed." J'onn agreed.

"But…" Bruce started as he went through the blueprints on his forearm touchscreen, "there is a room that can be compared to our food supplies storage… Let's go there."

Batman strode past them and to the door. "Wait!" Diana stopped him, "What are we doing with her?"

"We let her here, she is obviously sick, waking her could kill her."

J'onn and Superman nodded and walked to join Batman. Diana gazed at the anonymous woman wishing she could do more. Then, she followed the two others to Batman. Of course, he was right, but nonetheless, she didn't like letting her like that. She promised herself to do everything she could when they are back to Earth.

oOo

They reached their destination fairly quickly knowing the size of the ship. However, they weren't expecting what they found there. They did find water, enough to last many weeks, stocked in some sort of bottles, alien bottles, and to Batman saying, the reserves were almost full, so there wasn't any issue with water.

However, this wasn't the same case with food. Truthfully, they weren't expecting anything they could have found on Earth, but stones? Really? Little black stones? Since when anyone was eating stones? Even if they were the most extraterrestrial person in the universe, you don't eat stones.

"Well, I think this won't resolve our food issue." Superman commented, "Personally, I can stand not eating for some day, and if there is a yellow star nearby, weeks."

"It's not my case, unfortunately." Diana sighed.

"Neither mine." J'onn said.

Batman stared at the many containers filled we these little stones. Something wasn't right, logic. There were a lot of water, almost too much for the two thousand members of the crews it could have sustained. And stone wasn't of any nutritional benefits for any species known to man. Yes, there was minerals, but it wasn't enough to sustain a body, and except you're yourself a living stone, you need organic type of food.

But there was too much water, and stones… Wait a second! "Maybe…" Bruce whispered, taking in his hand one little black stone and reaching for his flask with the other. He dropped the stone inside and look at it through the transparent plastic of his flask. The others watched him curiously.

At first, nothing happened, but after some seconds, and after almost convincing Batman he was mistaken, the water around the stone started to darken. The stone was silently dissolving into the water, leaving brown, almost black, drink when it finished.

"Food?" Clark asked skeptically, eying the dark liquid.

"Yes." Batman answered, shaking his flask slightly. "Give it a try."

"What? Why me?!" Superman exclaimed, "Why don't you try yourself?"

"Because _I_ have food."

Diana snorted, "Give it to me." Without waiting their answer, she grabbed Batman's flask and took a quick sip. Clark cringed at the thought of the taste of it. Batman's eyebrows took a curious shape. Eventually, she let them know what it was like. "Quite good in fact."

Batman took his flask back and tried the liquid. "I could become used to it."

He held it to J'onn who hesitated but grabbed before taking a sip by himself. "Indeed."

"Kent?"

"No thanks, I believe you."

"Your loss." Bruce shrugged, filling one of his belt compartments with this little black not anymore stones.

"Then, what are we doing?" J'onn wondered aloud. "Where to begin to?"

The answer was a loud bang, echoed through the whole structure of the spaceship, following by another one, quieter.

"What was that?!" Diana asked to nobody as she instantly jumped into a fight stance. She looked at her three teammates and saw they had all take their focused expression and were as clueless than her.

"Only one way to know." Superman was she first to go after the noise, quickly following by the others. Intelligently, he didn't go away at full speed, keeping a speed Bruce could follow by running.

Superman was the first to see it. In fact, there wasn't anything left to see if not for the black marks remaining from an explosion. Except for that, there was nothing. But the fact it happened was more interesting. Whoever had trapped Flash, Green Lantern and Hawkgirl was near, they hadn't taken long to reach the explosion site.

And yes, the explosion should have been tremendous: the walls were covered with soot by more than fifteen yards long. Yet, the walls were surprisingly undamaged. Batman crouched down to touch the dark residue with two gloved fingers.

"Curious. The obvious explosion wasn't the cause of the soot, a fire might be, and there is something else... But why…" Batman stopped himself, and rose faster than anyone could have expecting. "Get out of there!"

Too late. The floor light up, flames jumped out, the thin layer of an invisible combustible being ignited. Superman and Wonder Woman took flight and speeded away from the fire pit. Batman's suit protecting him from the worst, he ran out to a safe place, but they all stopped in their tracks when the J'onn's cries of pain echoed through the blazing corridors. Another teammate was in danger, the team had to be there to save him.

But as fast as they were, they crossed back the inferno without any sight of J'onn.

"Where is he?!" Superman yelled, using once more his X-ray vision without success.

"I still have the signal of his earpiece, this way!" Batman jumped in action, run down the corridors as if he could do so blindfolded. Superman and Wonder Woman could only follow the Dark Knight of Gotham.

They ran back corridors and corridors, and so during a least ten good minutes, always hoping to be quick enough to take back J'onn from whoever trapped them. Then ended up back in a hangar. Well, not any hangar, the hangar they first came from. But there was no trace of J'onn.

That's where Batman stopped running, the little dot marking J'onn's earpiece position remaining still on his forearm screen. They had failed, J'onn'd been captured. Batman walked closer to the place his material was pointing to. Indeed, there was J'onn earpiece.

Bruce curses silently. They had lost another teammate. This wasn't good. Someone was definitely trying to get rid of them. And now there were only three left. And their enemy was clever, very clever. He was very knowledgeable of them, way too much for his own comfort. He knew J'onn's weakness: fire, he knew too how to take down Shayera, John and Wally… He knew for the earpiece…

That left only two solutions: either he's a telepath, or he knew them from their previous fights, reducing the chance of him being a new foe.

The sound of a fist smashing into a steel wall wake him from his own thoughts. The following sound was one of an angry Amazon warrior and curses in Themysciran. He turned around to see Diana holding her right fist with her left hand, and the wall unmarked. _Definitely not steel._

His eyes caught the sight of the previous terminal he used when they came there with the Javelins, missing Javelins… He went to stand in front of it. He needed something to occupy his mind, instead of thinking of their missing part of the team.

That was what he was looking for. The blueprints. Almost identical to the ones he'd downloaded to his integrated computer. It was quite ingenious. They were showing the same places but were forgetting some 'blank' spaces, different from each other, leading ineluctably anyone who were to go there to be completely lost. Yes, ingenious, that's what he would do if he were to be trying to trapped someone in an unknown place.

But there was one thing in common with these 'blank' areas, one was common in the two maps. And it could mean only one thing, there was only one place that was concentrating every information available aboard: the bridge.

"I know where is the bridge." He informed his friends, "There, we'll be able to have complete control over every system of the spaceship."

Superman looked at him strangely, "What happens if whoever is behind all of that is trying to stop us?"

Batman smirked, "I hope he'll do just that."

* * *

 **Just to say it, I don't think I'll be able to update soon (yeah that sucks) because I am my final exams soon (yeah, that sucks too) and I have to... well I'm sure you can guess what I must do. Anyway, no promised updates this time, but I hope sooner than I think.**

 **And as always, don't forget to follow the story and review it (only if you want, that's it)**

 **ps: Alright, I couldn't let this chapter with 3,999 words, I had to do something, hence this meaningless sentence.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here is the third chapter. Hope it's worth the wait :)**

* * *

Three expert figures were moving stealthily through the long and monotone corridors that were coursing through the spaceship. They were heading to a yet unexplored part of the vessel, but they knew what they would find there: the most important part, the command bridge. But then again, it wasn't their goal, they weren't expecting to reach the bridge before something happened, anything, or anyone.

It was crystal clear somebody was trying to stop them from taking control of the spaceship. It was clear someone was trying to get rid of them. And until now, it worked. The three figures were the last from seven heroes. The missing four were detained at an unknown location, at the best. But that was the point: someone was trying to get rid of them. This meant this person will try again. So far, he, she or it, was doing a good job, showing the fact he, she or it was more intelligent than the average people.

Nevertheless, the certitude he, let's suppose he is a he, would strike again gave the three survivors an advantage. If they used it cleverly, pushing their invisible foe to act earlier than he had expected, they would gain the upper hand. And that was exactly what they were doing, making their way to the bridge, as stealthy as possible, though they let the minimal clues of their presence even if they were convinced it wouldn't be needed to be found.

They weren't walking together. In fact, only one was walking, Superman and Wonder Woman hovering above the floor. They were all moving forward in the same direction but they were letting a dozen yards between them. It was the plan. Batman went first, then Clark and after, Diana. Batman was certainly the best fighter among them in term of skills, therefore, he could hold his own long enough to Superman to stop the fight with his strength and rapidity. If it wasn't enough, Diana would be there in seconds.

It was the best they could do for now.

Batman was still walking as silently as he always does, meaning undetectable if you don't possess the same hearing the Man of Steel has. That being said, people like that were rare, even the Amazon warrior wasn't able to hear his steps. Batman had a lot of practice to succeed such an achievement, years and years of training, since his earliest childhood, or rather since he was that little scared child in this fateful dirty street.

Batman was walking purposely. He wasn't going to somewhere, he was waiting for someone, walking to meet him. It was only a matter of time, he thought, and they will fight against their enemy. But he wouldn't make the same mistake twice. He had underestimated his invisible opponent, he could see that now. He made a mistake he thought he'd get rid of years ago. But it wasn't the case. And now, he knew they weren't prepared enough to face him. But he was ready.

And their opponent wasn't.

This time they weren't waiting for something to happen, they weren't exploring the ship, no, they were making a trap, and he would fall into.

Batman reached a junction. He had two choices: go to his right or choose the left. Batman turned right and carefully resume his walk. This whole mess was making him anxious even if he wouldn't admit it to anyone. He checked one specific compartment of his utility belt out of habit, closing it quickly after seeing the green tern ring hidden inside. He could help but shuddered at the thought of Diana almost dying, poisoned by a race whose ship was too similar to this one.

He kept walking five more minutes. Batman was starting to wonder if they would be attacked before they reached the main bridge. If not, they would be able to take control of every system and find their teammates, if they were still inside. Moreover, they would need to use the driving system to get them back to the Solar System. For now, they were still lost in space and hunting their probable host.

Batman felt a presence. It was like a sixth sense, something he didn't know how he had got, but knew what it means and he wasn't fool enough to ignore it since it had never been wrong. There was somebody nearby. And his guts were telling his plan to subdue him by himself was screwed up. He had the feeling someone was watching him. Someone was definitely watching him. He had lost the advantage of the surprise.

Batman, strong with all his skills and abilities, didn't see it coming. The first blow came has the door he was about to go through shut close in front of him. He heard similar sound coming from behind, informing him that he was trapped. But he hadn't the time to think of this as a hard punch stunned to the head him for one moment. Then the lights shut down.

Batman had a night vision mode in his cowl, but he hadn't the time to activate it. What he needed to do was to hold his opponent the time Superman reached him. With the doors shut, it would take him at least twenty seconds, at most, one minute. So, he chose to fight back in the dark. He had done so before. But he was ready for that.

His foe wasn't the least bothered by the darkness. And even so, Batman could only describe his fighting skills as equal, if not better, than his owns. Nonetheless, Batman put a fight his opponent would remember.

As the first punch landed, Batman could only marvel at his enemy's strength. However, he had fought stronger. Batman attacked back with a roundhouse quick, surprising his opponent by his rapidity and own strength. He went flying across the corridor, but recovered fast and came back to the fight. Batman could only wait until he was close enough to anticipate his movements with the sound of his arms and legs moving through the cold air.

He was good at that and managed to block the next fist flying to his abdomen but except for his first kick, he couldn't touch his adversary. It felt to Batman as he was fighting for minutes, but he knew better: it was only seconds. At this rate, his opponent was bound to successfully land he hit as time flows. He chose to change his approach.

Batman charged at his foe, and momentarily gained the upper hand. But only momentarily. As soon as his adversary understood he was now losing the fight, a new strength surged through his muscles and he managed to overpowered Batman. This led them in a rather uncomfortable position on the floor, Batman being restrained by the unknown enemy, his knee on Batman's back and holding his arm in a painful position.

Away, Bruce heard the sound of a big piece of metal clanging on the floor. Superman was close. But his foe had to have heard it too because he put more pressure on his knee. There was a moment of silence before the door near them began to glow bright red. Batman could only smirk to the floor. Their trap had worked. Or so he thought.

He heard the mysterious figure over him making a quick movement. Then, a black gloved hand appeared in his sight, holding a gray capsule. The hand crushed it.

"Breath." A deep, distorted and raspy voice ordered him as a slightly green smoke flew out of the hand.

At first, Batman tried to hold his breath but a painful jab to his ribs make him take a brief breath. Instantly, he felt the toxin flowing down his windpipe and into his lungs. In less than five seconds, he could feel his limbs becoming weak. The knee on his back was removed, his arm released. His eyes were getting tired. The last thing he saw was the door being completely melted away and Clark flying through to him, quickly followed by Diana. Then, his world went black.

oOo

 _Bruce had already seen this scene. He had already experienced this event. Bruce remembered all too well what happened and what could have happened. And he knew what will happen, here, in some seconds._

 _He was fighting against the leader of the invasion force, not for his life, even if it was almost that. Once again, he wondered if they really thought they could best the united heroes of Earth, but they should since they came anyway. But it occupied only a little part of his mind since he was focused on the sword fight he was putting._

 _He had always been good in all martial art, and fencing was not an exception, even if it wasn't modern fencing, but it wasn't his best fighting skill, for he thought swords were too deadly to use. But right now, he didn't care about it. He was only thinking of his fight and to the reason he was challenging the commander: saving Diana._

 _Both hero and invader made their way, as they keep dueling, inside the mother-ship. They met some enemies, but they always stepped aside to let them fight. At this time, Bruce didn't even notice them. But now, he was. This wasn't reality, he knew it. One would say we only realize it's a dream when we wake up, but it's wrong. Sometimes, we know it's a dream because it's too good to be true._

 _Batman had thought about what made this dream too good to be naturally accepted by his mind, and he found it when he had that dream for the third time. He was fighting for something, someone. He was doing something, anything, everything he could to save her, for her. That was a chance he was denied when he was only an eight-years-old boy._

 _They were now entering the command bridge. The moment that haunted his nights and days was about to happen. He noticed the humanoid aliens working at an alarming speed over the control panels of the ship. They were readying the spaceship to take off again. But it wouldn't stop him to reach his goal._

 _And then he was falling, again and again. His eyes fixed on the greenish ring falling after him were unblinking. And then, the iron hand grabbed it. Like the last he dreamed of this, and the one before the last, he felt his heart breaking. And he knew it was only a dream, but the feeling was the same. And he knew he did have saved her. But his heart still broke once again._

 _He fell until he met the ground and lose consciousness. That's when he would wake up alone in his bed, sweating from head to toes._

 _But he didn't._

Instead, he woke up in the Watchtower's med-bay, surrounding by Clark and Diana. Bruce was surprised, he never dreamed of this before. Yet, he knew it couldn't be true, could it be? It was only another dream. Diana should be angry with him, not smiling like that. She had never smiled like that at him, not this way, not with that much love.

"He's awake." Clark cheerfully said as he noticed his friend's open eyes.

"Hi Bruce." Diana sweetly greeted him, her voice seeming almost intimate, too intimate, far too intimate. This was making Bruce afraid of what was happening.

"How is our sleeping beauty?"

"Fine, it was just a lucky hit." Bruce find himself answering without his own consent. He didn't know why he was saying that, he didn't remember what happened. The last thing he could think of was being subdued in an alien ship.

"Lucky?" Wonder Woman scoffed, "Well, you stayed here for almost a whole week."

"I'm fine." He replied more harshly than he seemed to be intent.

"I doubt that."

"I don't care what you think, Clark."

"Fine! Good to see you too Bruce, we all missed you and your perfect words very much!" Clark said rising from his chair. "You know what? I'll leave you with Diana, it seemed she is the only one who can handle you."

And with that, he strode out of the room, but not without winking discreetly to Diana who smiled back.

"He's mad at me."

Diana chuckled, "I don't think so."

"Just kidding."

"Oh, the dark and brooding Batman making a joke, it must have been a really bad hit on your hard skull."

Bruce found himself acting again against his own instincts, he smiled back at her, genuinely. And she grinned at him too, wholeheartedly, lovingly. It was scaring him entirely, but he wasn't sure anymore if he wanted her smile to leave her face anytime soon.

They keep staring at each other for some seconds until the Amazon Princess eventually broke the comfortable silence. "To answer your question, yes, yes I'll."

What question? What was she speaking about? Even if this kind of questions were rushing into his mind, his body reacted without his consent once more.

"That's great." He smiled broadly. "I take it you went to Themyscira."

"I did," she nodded, "My mother didn't agree at first, but afterwards, she concluded it might be a way to reconcile both of our world, therefore she'll be there."

"Good," Batman answered, "I wouldn't want it any other way, losing our parents can be rather difficult."

An apologetic look replaced her lovely content features. "Bruce…"

"No, it's fine, I'm just glad you two have been able to make up."

"I'm too" She agreed. After another moment of content silence, she added, "I've been working on my speech for the UN, I don't want to look like an idiot before the world's leaders for the first time."

"You can't look like one, you look far too good."

She blushed a little at his comment, but the bright smile she rewarded him was more precious than any treasure he could dream of. By then again, Bruce wasn't sure how that situation come to be. He didn't remember, he wanted to remember, so desperately… He wanted to know how he had overcome his fear and inner demons, he wanted to know his story, their story.

"Thanks. But I need to go." She made a disappointed face, "I'll see you later, Bruce."

Bruce nodded and watched her as she left the room. She was undoubtedly the most beautiful woman in the world. In fact, she was blessed by the goddess of love and beauty, so it shouldn't be the most incredible fact about her, but, he couldn't help but marvel about her perfect shapes as she made her way to where she was needed. For the second time, he thought it was too good to be true.

But he couldn't care less as he remembered the promise he made to her at this same spot, lying in this same bed, as he was recovering from his fall. He had promised he would try, that he would be less guarded with his heart, that he would let her in when he would be ready. Something was telling him he was, or at least, he had been. The interactions with Diana mere seconds ago were proof enough that their relationship was more than an average friendship.

But he didn't remember. And that was killing him. He fell asleep as soon as he was alone again.

oOo

After arguing with J'onn, really arguing, not watching his own body speaking for him but arguing by himself, maybe even threatening him or at least, that was what his glare was implying, he went back to the Manor. His way back was uneventful as he only had to walk to the transport room and being beamed down to the Cave. Nonetheless, it was fine, he didn't want to be bothered by anything: he needed space and time to think by himself, to act as himself.

He couldn't push Diana out of his thoughts. There was clearly something wrong, he would never have let her become this close to him, it was too dangerous. But he did, didn't he? He wasn't sure himself how he did it, but he couldn't deny the obvious. And he couldn't remember. At least, right now, he could speak and do things by his own will.

He didn't know what really happened earlier this day, but he'd never experienced it before, and he was hoping to experience it again. Being a prisoner of your own body his quite painful and frustrating, even frightening sometimes. But he was not someone to be afraid for himself. He had come to these terms long ago: his life wasn't worth other's, he would sacrifice his life in a heartbeat if it were to save someone for his demise.

As his thoughts were once again flowing free in his mind, he reached the towel near the mat he was doing some exercises on. One week being unconscious on a bed had affected his body, at least a little. To tell the truth, it was more a way to escape his own thoughts than to compensate his lack of physical activities. It worked though, if only at the beginning.

Bruce dried his sweating face with it. Then, he threw it away and went to the Bat-computer. He still had work to do even if he didn't remember what needed to be done exactly. Yet, he knew Tim and Dick would have taken Gotham under their care during his absence, maybe even Barbara had helped them as Oracle. He had trained them for that, and they were good at it, more than he could have expected, though he never told them that.

Batman looked through the dozen files that were waiting for him in less than half an hour. It was mostly reports from Nightwing or Robin about their patrol. Surprisingly enough, Gotham had stayed quiet, which means something bad was coming. The most eventful day was the day Superman came and made an appearance at one of Gotham's charity galas organized by the philanthropist playboy Bruce Wayne.

Of course, he didn't go himself and the media had made their own hypotheses. One said he was away on a boat with the entire Russian ballet. He did, but not this time. Others said he was getting married to an unknown woman away from the paparazzi because she didn't want to be confronted with all the media's stuff and fame that could come with finally grounding the infamous playboy prince of Gotham.

As a read more article speaking of his one week disappearance, Bruce was getting more and more information of his lost memories. The last hypothesis was the one people believed the more in because it was the more probable, and maybe because they could imagine themselves in this anonymous woman who would have caught the heart of Bruce Wayne. But they were just theories.

Truthfully, there was no evidence, only rumors. If it were true, he wouldn't have let any. But it was once again hard to not know if it were or not, though he was pretty sure it wasn't. He was Batman. Batman was a loner, not a lover. One letter can change everything. Moreover, he doubted anyone could bear his behavior longer than a few hours, if not minutes.

He was pretty sure of that until he came upon one particularly well written and informed website proclaiming the infamous Gotham's playboy Bruce Wayne was, in fact, dating Wonder Woman. Unfortunately, Bruce knew all too well the author. Vicki Vale always had an obsession with him, both as Bruce Wayne and as Batman. It seemed she was even going spying on him as his public persona, hence the photographs put on her site.

It was quite annoying to know you had been followed without knowing it, even more when you're the Batman. And also because you don't remember going out with the Amazon beauty. The pictures were showing it clearly. Though Diana was barely recognizable, you couldn't miss her when someone told you it was her. Bruce couldn't help but felt especially stupid watching his own distracted features as he was looking at the Amazon from the seat in front of her in that picture.

He wasn't convinced by Vicki's arguments and theory: it could a lot of other things but a date. In fact, it was surely some league business that couldn't wait until he was back to the Watchtower as Batman. Even though there were photos of several different places and times where the two of them were eating together, her theory didn't make sense for one particular reason: he wouldn't have allowed it.

And then, he wasn't sure anymore. He did had promised he would try. He hadn't started trying yet, but it seemed he lacked some of his memories. Did he try? Maybe he did... But what now? Could he continue as nothing as ever happen? And, what was their current relationship? Just dating? Friends, close friends? Engaged? Married as the theory was implying?

As the thought crossed his mind, he couldn't help but smiled. Yes, that would be nice... But no. It wasn't the case: he had no ring on his finger. He sighed, that was something more he would need to find out, and soon. He didn't think his friends were aware he had lost some part of his memory. And he also needed to find what caused his amnesia. First, he should look at his report files to know how much his amnesia has affected him.

He decided he would do that another time, not because he didn't want to do it now, but because was heading down the stairs leading to the Batcave, and it wasn't Alfred nor Tim, the steps were or too light or too big to be ones of a young teenager. And it was definitely feminine. He knew who it was the moment her scent reached him.

"Diana." He acknowledged her presence before she even touched the Batcave's floor. "What are you doing here?"

She stopped, dead in her track. If he were looking at her, she would have noticed the shiver that ran her whole body as he coldly asked her his question.

"What are you-" She cut herself, "Are you well, Bruce?" She eventually inquired after a moment of tense silence.

It was Bruce turn to still. He had screwed it up. He had just blown away his 'cover'. He had reacted out of habits, but it seemed it shouldn't have this particular habit of him toward her. And then she knew something was wrong.

And what was the point of hiding it?

"No." He frostily answered and finally stood up and turned around to face her. "Something is wrong with me."

She quickly walked the distance separating them and stopped just in front of him, maybe too close to his liking but she didn't seem to notice it. She tentatively lifted her hand, stopping a few inches away from his face when she noted he unconsciously leaned back, even if so slightly.

"Tell me."

"I don't remember." He said, his face pleading her to understand him, to understand the pain it was not to remember what'd happened, what he'd done, what they'd become. And against all of his principles, he asked her help. "I need to remember... please, help me."

Her eyes stared wide at him, processing what he was saying. To what extent had he forgotten? There were some things you can't experience again, you only did them once and then, you can't redo them, the magic is lost. And Diana was fearing he had lost that, the magic in what they have shared.

He grabbed her frozen hand in his hand moved forward to let it come against his cheek, pressing with his own hand to hold hers closer. "Please..."

The contact seemed to startle her and she came back from her still state. Her beautiful azure gaze was still filled with uncertainty but also with purpose now. He could read it in her: she would help him, she had decided she would. And it wasn't even if she had thought she wouldn't.

She looked into his own ice blue eyes and put her free hand on his other cheek, holding his head, maybe a little too tight to be comfortable, but this was not what he was searching. He wanted his memory.

She leaned in. Her lips gently pushed against his. He heard something humming loudly behind him, maybe his computer, but he couldn't care less. There was his answer. There was what he wanted so desperately to know. Yes, yes... he had tried.

After some seconds of discovering her, her mouth and her taste, they leaned back reluctantly, only because of the need to breath.

"Do you remember that?"

Bruce looked down, eyes closed. His gesture was enough. But it didn't matter, she would make him remember, no matter what. What had happened between them won't be forgotten this easily.

"What do you last remember?" Diana asked gently. It would be a start to know that.

"It was one week after the invasion that almost killed you," at her frown, he explained further, "we were exploring a spaceship, things went wrong and we ended up trapped inside with someone hunting us. I fought against him and he managed to make me breath some substance before Clark was able to get to us. Then I woke up on the Watchtower."

As he finished, the humming stopped. When he looked up to her, he only saw confusion on her face, maybe fear too. His face had to show his own trouble to understand what would cause her to be in such a state because she tried to hide her emotions. Had it been so long ago?

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. A high whistling rang out loudly through the Batcave. Diana didn't seem to notice.

"It's impossible, Bruce, it'd never happened."

The floor shook violently. Diana seemed even more confused as she watched him struggling to stand on his feet.

"No..." Bruce whispered, realizing everything was not real.

He felt unconsciousness taking over him. The only thing he could do was to grip her arms to hold him up. He didn't want to leave. The last thing he felt was the hard metal of a ring between his skin and her hand. Then, everything went dark.

* * *

 **Okay... I think that end is not really good... but if I haven't cut it there, it would be worse... Anyway, glad you still read this story so far. Don't hesitate to review, fav end follow it, that would make me happy, very happy :D**

 **No kidding, I'm already happy simply by making this story even if I know it's far away from being perfect... but it will be a lot more fun when we reached the reveal of- What did you think? I'm not going to tell you what is going to be revealed :D okay, maybe I let hints in this chapter, in every chapter in fact.**

 **Next chapter, some explanation of this chapter and also other stuff... See you !**


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